Pop-up shops, pop-up restaurants, pop-up clubs – the list of this recent phenomenon which continues to sweep across the globe and seems to be lasting longer than the temporary enterprises it designates could go on and on. But it is not only the flash retailing or consuming that ‘Pop-Up Generation, Design Between Dimensions’, the new exhibition curated by the renowned forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort which opened few days ago (13 December) at MOTI, Museum of the Image in Breda, Netherlands, is devoted to.

Instead, this curious, vibrant and highly-inspiring show focuses on the eponymous ‘Pop-Up Generation’ of young designers who ‘born with and behind the screen live in a shadow area […] move easily from 2D to 3D and back again as if they do not even notice that there is a difference,’ explains Edelkoort.

An array of international artists and designers ‘who make transience and the immaterial visible’, such as Tord Boontje, Kiki van Eijk, Issey Miyake, Molo, Eley Kishimoto & Ben Wilson, Studio Job and Jaime Hayon to name a few, have been chosen by the design curator and former director of the Design Academy Eindhoven and the variety of the objects showcased at the exhibition includes pieces such as multi-media installations, films and performances, furniture, graphics, characters animated by technology, computer programmes and textiles. ‘Pop-Up Generation, Design Between Dimension’ will remain on show at the museum until 12 April 2012.

‘In 2010, the Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake first presented a ground-breaking collection called 132 5. Working closely with a computer scientist, mathematical algorithms were designed into 3D shapes that are then heat-pressed into two-dimensional forms. When these garments are folded, they resemble origami creations. When they are unfolded and put on, dimensional shapes pop-out and protrude from the body. Molo’s cardboard slinky furniture is delivered flat; you then unfold it in one fluent movement into a beautiful piece of lounging furniture or a side table. These are simple examples of the pop-up phenomenon.

‘With the development of the 3D printer, designers can quickly produce spatial sketches. This demands new insights from both designer and the business community. Laws of nature no longer hold this generation in their grip. Armed with technological developments, today’s designers are now able to allow themselves to be unrestricted by dimensions.’

‘The dynamism of pop-up is reflected in the exhibition: its flexibility and versatility is a source of inspiration for many disciplines. Visitors will experience multi-media installations, see films and performances that become clocks, chairs, graphics, songs and lights, meet new characters animated by technology, witness computer programmes that make books magically come to life, and encounter cardboard and textiles that pop-up into animals, mushrooms, fashion, furniture and masks. Roles shift, connect and merge to the extent that there seems to be only one universal and elastic discipline that pops up, moving constantly between dimensions, and possibly trying to define a new one. ‘